Silent Hill HD Collection is a port of Silent Hill 2 and Silent Hill 3 to the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 with 720p resolution (1280 x 720) at 30 FPS, originally developed by Team Silent, ported by Hijinx Studios, and published by Konami. It includes the Born from a Wish scenario from Silent Hill 2.

It features an alternate voice dub, as well as PlayStation Network Trophies and Xbox 360 Achievements. Players have the option to switch between the original voice acting and the alternate voice acting for Silent Hill 2, while the re-dub is mandatory for Silent Hill 3 because it lacks the original voice acting.

The Xbox 360 version is also available as a digital download; the PlayStation 3 version is not.

Contents

Development

The collection was directed by Tomm Hulett. Silent Hill HD Collection was first announced in Konami's 2011 Pre-E3 show. It was revealed that both games would be given new voice-overs. The collection was originally supposed to be a PlayStation 3 exclusive, but an Xbox 360 release was eventually announced.

Due to the age of both games involved, the only code available to be given to Hijinx Studios by Konami was an unfinished incomplete beta build of the final version because Konami lost the source code.[1] This resulted in both versions of the HD Collection being hampered by severe technical issues.

Mary Elizabeth McGlynn was approached by Konami to direct the re-dub. The reason for the re-dub was due to Guy Cihi requesting residuals for the multiple ports and re-releases of Silent Hill 2 as he claimed that he owned the rights to James's voice and motion capture.[2] McGlynn, Troy Baker and Thessaly Lerner refuted this, stating that Guy did not own James's voice and motion capture and that his performance was always owned by Konami; this was the reason Konami never paid Guy for residuals.[3][4] No written contract between Guy and Konami was available.

In a letter to Konami, Guy stated that it was not about the money but rather "the thoughtless way that those involved in the production have been treated" such as not notifying him of any re-releases and hiding his contributions in "The Making of Silent Hill 2" video. Guy also called for Konami to allow the original voices and give fans the option to choose between the original dub and the re-dub.[5] Guy's close connection with fans of the series played a strong part in his decisions regarding these issues. Monica Taylor Horgan supported giving fans an option as well.[6]

In a post-release interview, Tomm Hulett reflected on the issues with the HD Collection, as well as preserving video games. Due to the development being different for every game in regards to coding and overall engine development, this can cause issues when remastering the game for next generation consoles.

Artistic changes

Characters tend to use new words when starting sentences. This occurs most often with Laura.

During the opening monologue theme, the guitar has been changed from acoustic to electric.

The distances on the sign at the beginning have been altered. In the original version, Paleville is 10 miles, Old Silent Hill is 50 miles and Brahms is 265 miles. In the HD Collection, Paleville is 9 miles, Old Silent Hill is 6 miles and Brahms is 16 miles.

The textures on the first aid kits and the medical cross posters have been changed.

The street and sidewalks textures have been changed to look much cleaner.[8]

During Eddie's rant in the Labyrinth, when he says, "It doesn't matter if you're smart, dumb, ugly, pretty...", the subtitles say "your" instead of "you're".[9]

The Sunderland's video tape is now bordered by a TV screen rather than showing up full-screen. This may make it more difficult to realize that James smothered Mary with a pillow.

The FMV cutscenes are stretched horizontally to appear as widescreen, which is more problematic than Silent Hill 3 because Silent Hill 2 is more FMV-heavy. The incorrect aspect ratio results in a slight "stretched" or "fat character" look.

Although it is completely random, the Ranking Screen may appear white.

Saving the game at a Halo of the Sun is fade-to-white instead of fade-to-red.

All music has been reworked or changed entirely. It is most noted in the Otherworldmall; the ambient music has been changed to a punk rock type of beat.

When Heather first meets Claudia, a baby's cry can be heard. Also the Game Over sound can be heard in this cutscene.

In the intro, a 3-second clip of Valtiel bending over to drag Heather Mason's corpse in Lakeside Amusement Park is changed to a 3-second clip of Heather turning on her flashlight in Lakeside Amusement Park. This was likely done because the original scene wasn't in HD.

There are some script changes. Jeremy Blaustein approved of these changes. Despite these changes, the subtitles still read from the original script.

Claudia says, "They've come to witness the Beginning. The rebirth of Paradise, unspoiled by mankind." She previously said "despoiled".

The sewer fairy says, "I have finally found a truly honest person" in reference to Heather's gender, rather than, "I have finally found a truly honest man."[10]

Vincent tells Heather Mason (the reincarnation of Alessa) about Dahlia and that "she is your mother". This is corrected to as "she "was" your mother".

After Heather finds her father murdered, she finds Claudia and says, "I'll kill you, you bitch!'" rather than "I'll get you for this!".

Near the end, Vincent says God has "terrible" taste instead of "lousy" taste.

The scene in which Heather returns to her apartment to find her father dead has been changed so that Harry Mason's face is seen.

This is likely unintentional and simply a result of both games lacking proper cutscene letterboxing, as some of the cutscenes of Silent Hill 2 show letterboxing appearing, disappearing and reappearing in some scenes whenever the camera angle changes. Most notable of this is the introduction of the Lying Figure monster. [11]

Because of the lack of letterboxing, there is a quick one-second shot up Heather's skirt, where her vest is seen through.[12]

In the original game, Cheryl Mason, Harry Mason and Lisa Garland's voices were extracted from the first game. They have been re-dubbed for the HD Collection.

During the Leonard Wolf boss fight, both Heather and Leonard are able to sprint full speed in the water as if the water doesn't exist. [13]

During Claudia's final speech, Innocent Moon is replaced with Maternal Heart, which is redundant since it already played when Heather spoke to Vincent in the library.

In the Xbox 360 version, Memory of The Waters may be removed entirely when Heather cries after killing God.

When Heather returns to Douglas Cartland after the final boss, his coat is noticeably much bloodier than in the original for unknown reasons. This makes no sense because it is implied that Claudia injured Douglas' leg using telekinesis.

14 of Heather's unlockable costumes that were present in the PS2 version were removed, presumably because they contain copyrighted and licensed gaming magazine logos. [16]

Technical issues

A comparison showing how the HD Collection (bottom) is darker, duller, and less vivid than the original (top). It is recommended to turn up the in-game brightness to alleviate this.

Many problems of the technical issues reported included:

The entire game crashing and freezing, sometimes when entering new areas, picking up items, and using items.[17][18][19][20] This seems more common in Silent Hill 3.

Entire rooms (such as the Lyne house) not loading, leaving the player trapped in an inescapable void.[21] This differs from the above glitch because the player can still move around and hear footsteps. It seems exclusive to Silent Hill 2, and is known to occur in the apartment complexes and Brookhaven Hospital.

Audio glitches, even to the extent of seconds of audio missing.[25] Sometimes, the background audio may stop entirely and there will be a few seconds of silence. [26] The submachine gun was also glitched.[27]

Inaccurate textures.[35] (The elevator has the floor texture - known to occur in the Xbox 360 version)

A serious glitch which makes it so that when any achievement is unlocked, the entire game freezes. It seems exclusive to Silent Hill 3 on the Xbox 360 version.[36]

Maria's jail cell cutscene can be completely glitched if the player picks up the Great Knife.

Some issues specific to the PlayStation 3 version upon launch were:

Erratic walking speed, at worst rendering the game virtually unplayable.

Game running before loading screens cleared (potentially allowing players to take unavoidable damage or miss the first bits of many cutscenes).

PlayStation 3 patch

A day one patch (1.01) was released for the PlayStation 3 version. Many players claimed that the patch made no difference.

Another PlayStation 3 patch (1.02) was released. It fixed a number of problems such as the frame rate and lip sync which were greatly improved. Missing sounds and music had also been fixed along with the fog density issues. Other minor visual/audio problems were also improved.

Cancelled Xbox 360 patch

The Xbox 360 patch was canceled due to "technical issues and resources" which made any attempts at resolving the problems ineffective.

Reception

Both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game have received mixed reviews on Metacritic. The Xbox 360 version holds a 69 on Metacritic[37], and the PlayStation 3 version holds a 70.[38] IGN rated the collection 9/10.[39]

Konami allowing the HD Collection to be developed Hijinx Studios was questioned, as the company's only console games were Frogger Returns and Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgment.

Because the Xbox 360 version patch was cancelled, Konami offered compensation for owners of the Xbox 360 version by offering many other games including the same game for the PlayStation 3 if they sent their copy and receipt for proof of purchase to Konami.[40] This offer, however, is only valid for purchases made in North and South America.

Voice acting

The re-dubbed voice acting was received very indecisively by fans and has a mixed reception.

Fans of the original voice acting often cite that the voice acting was supposed to be realistic and that the characters actually sound like real people rather than actors, and the "awkward" and "stilted" manner characters spoke in helped add to the "surreal" and "dream-like" atmosphere, and also helped portray the cast of Silent Hill 2 as "damaged". They also tend to feel that some characters in the re-dub are too "melodramatic" and lack the original inflection and tone, and that Mary's deep voice doesn't suit her as much as it does for Maria. Angela speaks more awkwardly, stutters more, and has a more childish tone in the original due to being an abuse victim; in the re-dub, Angela speaks more naturally.

Of all the character redubs, the performance by Mary Elizabeth McGlynn as Mary Sunderland received the most backlash. McGlynn's voice is widely considered too deep to accurately portray the "soft, gentle Mary." McGlynn felt her voice was too deep to play Mary, but producers cast her anyway.[41]

Fans of the re-dub often cite that the original voice acting felt "unprofessional".

Despite all original voices being replaced in Silent Hill 3, when Heather is hit by the rollercoaster, her original scream can be heard, probably due to developer oversight.

The texture of the water in Silent Hill 2, despite appearing with really bad textures, is the same texture that was used in the PlayStation 2 and PC version. But in the HD Collection, there is a layer of fog which is missing to conceal the textures.